Gym Noob. Talk to me

[TwoWheelsDail...]

Hi all, im going to be joining the local gym when i get paid.

im joining becuase i want to loose my gut and get some stength (ABS would be nice too)

i know that i wont see any gains instantly.

but, i dont even know where to start.

what should i start on?

i need a dummies guide basically!

thanks for you help.

Benn
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[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

Speak with the PT at your gym.
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[swampy]

ABS is overrated if you ask me, nice to have, but taking a little more care when riding in the wet should see you right...
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[lihp]

You will lose very little weight/gut in the gym without having a proper diet, then saying that, often with a proper diet you don't need to go to the gym to lose weight.
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[Saltire]

IMO, never mind a personal trainer - overpaid people that teach you stuff you could learn just as well if not better off of YouTube.

Search from Instructional Fitness on there, guy is great, explains form, different excersizes and why they are what you need and, well... everything. Only thing then I think a PT would help you with is possibly with motivation and form but if you want rid of the gut that bad and you are able to remember info (like how to deadlift with good form) then it's not needed, just practise infront of a mirror 'til your muscle memory stores it for good.

Also, having a gym with loads of advanced equipment helped keep me motivated. Knowing that I had multiple machines for the same muscle group helped mine since I felt better equiped to achieve my goals. So try and find a bigger better gym rather than one of the ones with just the basics as you end up hitting a brick wall when you want to expand on your routine.

Good luck

[Benno]

You don't need to waste money on a gym. Start doing circuits, occasional endurance runs, interval training, and loaded (fast) walks by yourself.
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[J4mes]

When WTH mentioned speaking to a PT, I think he meant speaking to the PT's who work at the gym rather than paying £25/hour to have someone shout at you.

When you go to the gym you will probably have a little chat, a short induction, they might teach you a bit about stretching and diet and then write you a plan for the first 8-12 weeks based on your goals.

This is what they do at mine (if you want it) and it's a meat head gym, not a fitness first or *other generic health club*

Don't do curls in the squat rack.

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[smegballs]

[henry hoover]

It might be beneficial to persuade a mate to join up with you. It definitely helps you push yourself and gives you added motivation.

Plus you won't get stuck with an Olympic bar on your chest
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[Clarkie]

For strength gains you want to be lifting ~90% of your ojne rep max in the 1-5 rep range, I'd suggest doing mostly compound lifts instead of isolations. However if you want to beef up 12 reps is the way to go ~60-70% of your one rep max.

How many days a week can you get down to the gym? If you could, four would probably be ideal, its important to let your body rest especially if you are lifting heavy.

MTWTFSS
AB x ABxx

A
3 sets x 5 reps Over head press
3x5 Squats
3x5 Bench press
3x12 claf raises
2 xFailure Dips

B
3x5 Rows
2x Failure hanging leg raises
2xFailure Pull ups
2x Failure chin ups
1x5 Deadlifts

This routine should see you some pretty decent strength gains but like people have said before abs are made in the kitchen not the gym.

Make sure your form for these lifts is down before you start piling the wieght on, especially the deadlifts, its way to easy to fuck something up. Pay for a PT to check for you or someone experienced enough, youtube has a lot of information about this if youre not sure just do a quick search and you'll find loads.

Hope that helped!

[dydey90]

[Robster]

Take up power wanking

(lol jk)

That Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe book is getting lots of attention recently, might be worth a buy???

[Clarkie]

[djrikki]

[Chalky.]

Lots of cardio.

/\ Rest days are for faggots

[el_oso]

The stronglifts 5x5 program is a good one to start with for strength gains. Start off light. If you don't do regular exercise now you will ache heavily for a good couple of weeks if you go all out off the bat. If I have a 'rest week' I will be sore for days after my first few sessions back. Even if you feel like you can lift a lot more, keep the weight low. Learn the motor patterns and build up week by week. The first couple of weeks should see you progress really quickly as your body learns the lifting patterns and motor skills. One of my biggest failures was not learning correct squatting technique. Now I have to undo a lot of the work I've done to balance out my muscle imbalance to go right back to the start.

How much gut losing are we talking about?

As for diets + supplements. I would get some creatine for strength training. It's very cheap and so long as you actually stick to the program will help you work out longer. Food wise, cut out processed sugar and energy drinks and don't be obviously unhealthy and you will see the drop off and your strength increase.

If you really want to drop weight/fat quick then intermittent fasting is the way to go. I'm losing roughly 1Kg per week but am still getting stronger and am not that strict. Read up on it or ask some more questions to understand how it works.
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[moppy]

Also gym noob who wants to stop being weak and fat.

Don't eat particularly UNhealthy, cheerios for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, bits of fruit, lots of water, and rice and curry for dinner (home cooked).

Work at a desk, so completely sedentary and I get absolutely no exercise whatsoever.

If I just jog 5 miles a day, 5 days a week and do some push ups and sit ups, can I realistically expect any change without altering my diet?

[djrikki]

[handbasket]

IMO, diet + exercise is the best bet, each alone has a high chance of failure.

For the gym side, you can use it to burn calories, but it can get pretty tedious. Riding to the gym or driving to sit on an exercise bike? Why not get out on a real pushbike, it is less boring.

I tend to use the rowing machine a lot at the gym rather than the exercise bike or treadmill. It requires a lot more technique and concentration, so I find it easier. If you do use the rowing machine, try to get someone who knows what they are talking about to look at your technique. I see a lot of people rowing like mad but the numbers on the machine show they are really not putting any effort in and doing poor times. Also worth finding out how to set up the machine, and you can use the performance log at concept2.com to track your progress.

To monitor my diet I use myfitnesspal (website and iPhone app) into which I put everything I eat. Then I add the calories burned from exercise. I try to maintain a small deficit which allows me to continue to train and lose weight at a steady rate. Don’t try to lose weight rapidly, it’s counter productive.

I’ve found the book Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald very helpful, and have just bought his new Racing Weight Cookbook which looks very good.

[mic]

Www.stronglifts.com

5x5 3 days a week.
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[moppy]

[mic]

Don't worry about the meat heads each gym is different. In my local gym the squat rack is at the end of the gym with the free weights and I've never seen anyone else ever squat there. When i go at any time I can use the rack all to myself for an hour if needed.... no one waiting and noone watching. some people might be using the dumbells but are too interested in looking in the mirror so stick your earphones in and off you go.

Edit.... a lot does depend on diet for appearance. I squat what some people call heavy yet ive still got a gut. My arms have always been chunky so to me, no real difference. But everyone is different.
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[djrikki]

[G]

Gaining strength and losing weight are two seperate things.

To lose weight you need to eat less calories than you burn.
It really is that simple. Every study I've seen has shown for the basic aim you really don't need to worry about low or high carbs, getting scared over silly you tube videos or any such thing.
For visible abs you need to be at a low bodyfat. You can have massive muscles there, but with fat ontop it'll just look like a big cut, not 'ripped'.
You need to work out how many calories you burn a day - lots of sites will give you a rough guess. Then you need to decide how quickly you want to lose weight. 2lb a week is a sensible maximum and means eating 1000 less calories a day than you burn. 500 less for 1lb a well. All approximations, of course.

I would recommend the myfitnesspal app and website for recording the food you eat. If you have a smartphone, it makes it VERY easy to do - it can scan barcodes as well as search manually through a big database.

For strength, I'd suggest starting with a routine like Starting Strength or Strong Lifts.
These give your body a thorough workout and provide an excellent base of strength regardless of your future goals.
They are basic routines. Even when eating less than you burn, you will likely see strength gains when first starting out - as your body gets used to moving big weights.

Getting a knowledgeable person (maybe gym staff) to go through the basic moves with you and check up you're still doing ok a few weeks later is probably a good idea.

I would suggest eating around 1g of protein per lb of body weight. Even if you're not doing weights, this helps prevent muscle been used as energy and thus can promote fat being burnt.

Cardio is excellent for... improving cardiovascular health. Which of course is useful for loads of stuff.
It also 'buys you calories'. In that if you burn an extra 500 calories going for a run, you can eat an extra 500 calories of food. But, you could have just not done either for the same weight loss.